Learning to live with chronic pain and illness gracefully

‘Twas the Day After Christmas…

And we have a fierce windstorm going on since last night that has really dropped the temperature. It’s blown away all the birds (including a stork- I always forget how darn big they are) and I fear for my bird feeder except I don’t want to go out there to rescue it. All that noisy wind made for some weird dreams, let me tell you.

Christmas Eve was a really relaxing day. I read 1.5 books snuggled into a blanket-nest on the couch with rotating cats. I did venture out for a few locals errands for an hour, and that convinced me that I wasn’t yet well enough for a 2-hour car trip down to Tampa for the party, so we passed. I’m disappointed, but it was definitely “listen to your body” time.

Christmas Day started with a surprise gift in my stocking! A while basck I mentioned the medicine ball filled with water and glitter? Well hubby snuck out and grabbed one for me as a surprise! Our big gift to each other was the ellipitcal, so I didn’t expect anything else. It has blue glitter!

I then opened the packages from my parents. Dad gave me a light-up snowman and mom gave me a Snow “To Go” Ball to hang on the tree! They knew I was missing snow, so these will be fun items to bring out next Christmas. They also gave us a Scrabble set, since we don’t have some and Scrabble is a family tradition. Hubby has already resigned himself to having his butt kicked- hee! My sis sent us some beutiful hand-made ornaments, and family tradition continued in that both dad and sis has other gifts that are on their way but late, lol! I feel quite spoiled.

We drove to hubby’s family for Christmas dinner. As usual, mom went all-out on dinner: turkey, sweet-sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, turnips (I LOVE turnips!), baby carrots, rolls, and stuffing. There was also apparently cranberry relish but it never made its way to the dining table- oops! While we digested we looked at their pictures from their latest cruise to the Mediterranean (no, I’m not at ALL jealous) and then there was apple pie, Christmas cookies, and cherry cheescake. We exchanged gifts and I recieved a few items from my wish-list, including an extra-large heating pad and jumper cables- lol! The heating pad is already seeing a lot of use!

We did end up passing on the Dessert party at another friend’s house- we were both full of food, and I was tired and in a lot of pain. It’s hard to pace yourself, especially when these are folks we don’t see very often, but I wouldn’t have been much fun or very social. We have one more event this weekend- hopefully getting together with friends this evening for gaming. We have one more gift to bestow, which promises to be a fun one.

My Christmas gift to myself will be buying a few more pieces of exercise equipment for my physical therapy so I can keep it up at home. Not exciting, but necessary. I’m also back on the muscle relaxants. Stopping them did not save my insides from indignities, and it has really had an impact on my pain levels. This is a bit disappointing, and it means that I have to keep being extra-diligent about what and how much I eat, but hopefully my pain will start settling back down, some. I’m still wildly looking forward to having the week off. Tomorrow morning I am buying my FUN gift for myself- Cataclysm! So I can install and play it over the break.

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5 Responses

Glad you had a good Christmas. My tummy isn’t exactly happy with me today either. Oh well, ya play…ya gotta pay I guess! Everybody is working today, so I have the house to myself. I plan on some serious couch-sitting and TV watching!
xoxomo

I am getting a ridiculous amount of housework done to make up for not doing any the last few days. Plus, hopefully it means I can be super-lazy the rest of the week! ;D Hope your insides settle down soon!

My husband and I play Scrabble almost every day. It’s a very serious event in our house. WE have a board that we keep tally marks for how many games won, plus our high scores. We’re usually pretty even. Anyway, I’m posting a link to your sight from my blog on my Christmas post, because I liked your post. Have a great New Year!